CIOE 2024 was successfully held from September 11-13 at the Shenzhen International Convention and Exhibition Center (Bao’an New Hall), with Guangku Technology’s subsidiary Zhuhai VLINK Co., Ltd. (referred to as “VLINK”) successfully participating in the exhibition. On September 13th, ICC Xunshi visited Mr. Xiong Dengfeng, General Manager of Jiahua Weijie, at the 12B39 booth of Guangku Technology to learn about the company’s expected preparations for the upcoming hot market.

Optimistic about the trend of CPO

CPO refers to the optoelectronic co packaging that combines the optical engine and switch chip together, without the use of pluggable optical modules. This method enables faster transmission of electrical signals between the engine and the chip, shortening the distance between the optical engine and the switching chip, effectively reducing size, lowering power consumption, and improving efficiency.

With the increasing strength of modern data centers and the rapid development of artificial intelligence, the demand for high-density, low-power, and low latency optical interconnect technology is growing day by day, driving the development of CPO technology. The industry speculates that the CPO technology market will maintain high-speed growth in the coming years, mainly driven by the demand for ultra large scale data centers and the rapid development of fields such as AI and ML, which may ultimately become the only solution to achieve higher speeds in the future.

According to President Xiong, from the perspective of the development characteristics of data communication, it is an inevitable trend for optical switches to replace electric switches. At present, Internet operators such as Google are already using optical switches in the market, but the ability to mass produce optical switches in China is limited. In addition, if the entire network framework of the data center is to be switched to optical switches, it will need to be reconfigured, including all protocol and configuration changes. These will take at least two years to transition and switch.

The current difficulty in following up in China lies in the FAU process, which requires high precision while ensuring that the insertion loss and delay of each channel meet the requirements. With the increasing R&D investment of leading foreign enterprises, once successfully laid out, the market space for future data center optical switching will also increase.

The key process of CPO lies in FAU. Currently, VLINK is cooperating with some overseas customers for preliminary research and development, which not only needs to meet the requirements of pluggable accuracy but also precise size.

Of course, Mr. Xiong also stated that CPO belongs to the concept of the future and may not be mass-produced in the short term, including alternative solutions for optical switches, which are all future trends and not in the short term. But VLINK needs to do more than just the present, whether it is in optical switches or CPO, VLINK is cooperating with cutting-edge customers to conduct research and prepare for future expansion. Once there is an increase in demand, VLINK can seize market share by seizing the opportunity.

Fully promote automation

In addition to FAU highlights, high-quality customer resources are also a major advantage of VLINK. According to Mr. Xiong, both domestically and internationally, VLINK has excellent customer resources. After passing the 400G certification window in the early stage, the supply of 800G and 1.6T era will basically synchronize.

At present, many FAU companies in the market adopt outsourcing to compensate for their insufficient production capacity. Mr. Xiong stated that in order to control quality and yield, VLINK does not outsource and produces all of its own products.

When it comes to self-produced products, we cannot ignore the current efforts of VLINK in automation. Mr. Xiong stated that VLINK is currently vigorously promoting automation. With the advanced automation capabilities of Guangku Technology, VLINK plans to increase its automation level to over 80%.

Mr. Xiong stated that VLINK does not engage in low price competition, but only focuses on high-quality development, ensuring good quality, products, and reputation. Its commitment to customers is not only to deliver goods, but also to ensure quality without any problems.

With the advancement of automation, the expansion process of VLINK is also accelerating, and the new site is being renovated. It is expected that the new factory will be put into use after the National Day holiday.